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I'm pro choice, I'm pro nationalized single payer health coverage--so everything that follows comes under the heading of Dave's ongoing willingness to compromise on health care legislation in 2009 and in looking for an elegant solution to a political wrench.

Too, I understand how difficult and morally complicated the abortion issue is for many, many people--and I respect that. The abortion amendment and the need for the Senate to deal with it both harms and complicates passage, and it should come as no surprise that it's introduction came in the 11th hour to poison the well. But in real terms--not base political ones--and insofar as what the existing Federal Employees Health Benefit Plans cover, there are multiple ways to solve this legislative problem that at least maintain the status quo on federal abortion funding but at the same time changes the status quo by improving health care and insurance access for all Americans, which I want to remind my liberal friends is the overriding objective here. One solution lies in simply duplicating what Congress and federal employees' plans cover and leaving it at that. The FEHBP plan covers abortions in cases of incest, rape, and life-threatening danger to the mother. And then there's a copay in the ballpark of $200. Individuals can purchase private supplementary coverage that individuals not the government pays for. A second solution is to apply the Hyde amendment's spirit and letter to the Senate's bill--the federal government will not cover the percentage cost for abortions, but will not prevent individuals from doing so and, especially, will not prevent private insurers from doing so. That's been a workable compromise for federal funding of abortions since the mid-70s, and at the very least, it should be included in the original legislation that we want the president to sign as soon as possible. I remind everyone that this is not the last Congress to exist. There are many more to come, and there will be time to alter the government's horrible predisposition to treat being a woman as a pre-existing condition.

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